What gaps exist in India’s mobile banking and payments ecosystem for startups to address?

The mobile payment space in India is regulated by RBI and naturally governed by the big telcos. To offer any sort of banking using the mobile phone, RBI and the Telecom regulatory authority in India (TRAI) will have a say in it. Very hard to compete in this space. With the sheer size of the Indian mobile market, there is not a software/payments company in the world that does not have India in this cross-hairs.

To have a product that is based on mobile payments you have a very decent chance. You need to find your niche and work on a payment solution based on that niche. One problem area that keeps on propping up again and again (when I talk to my Indian colleagues) is the financial switch (or in a crude sense a payment router).
Allow me to explain very briefly by giving some examples:

• To be able to take a mobile wallet payment from Bank X and be able to convert and settle it to Bank Y's savings account.
• Take Bank ABC's ATM card payment and settle it on Bank XYZ's pre-paid Mastercard
• Take a homegrown payment solution (not too familiar with the companies running there), and be able to route the funds to Mobile Carrier X's branchless banking payment system
• To take money credit from Mobile carrier X and transfer it to Mobile carrier Y
• To take a prepaid card from Mobile carrier A and be able to transfer the funds into the checking account of Bank C

Such payment routing mechanism are definitely missing (not just in India, but in many other countries).